How Vinyl Records are Made

Lacquer disc used to make the metal stamper.

The first step in making a vinyl record is obviously having a master recording made in a studio. After the recording is perfected by an engineer, a lacquer object (similar to nail polish) is put onto a record-cutting machine. As the lacquer rotates, a stylus etches grooves into the lacquer from electrical signals from the master recording. Once this is done, the lacquer is sent to a production company which takes care of the rest of the work. When the lacquer arrives at the production facility, it is then coated in some kind of metal, nickel or silver. This metal coating will be used as the stamper. A stamper is just a negative copy of the original recording. Instead of having grooves like the lacquer copy, the metal copy will have ridges. After the metal stampers are completed, they place it into a hydraulic press with a vinyl in between the two. Then steam is used to soften the plastic vinyl so that the stampers can make an impression onto the vinyl. Finally, they use cool water to stiffen the vinyl so that it is ready to be played.

Metal stampers used to press vinyls.

Sources: 

Bower, Meredith.  "How Record Players Work"  07 December 2009.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/record-player.htm>  27 November 2011.